Garcia sharp for Redbirds in rehab

Cards lefty set to return; 'Birds lose

St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Jaime Garcia kind of figured it would be a good night when he saw how effective his sinker ball was early in Tuesday night's rehabilitation start for the Redbirds.

With his sinker looking every bit as good as it has the last two seasons with the Cardinals, the 26-year-old lefthander looked like he was ready for a return to the big leagues. Garcia struck out eight batters in the Redbirds 5-2 loss to Salt Lake in front of 5,113 at AutoZone Park.

"My sinker was good," he said. "I'm excited to see that back. That pitch has been big for me the last couple of years. It's something I kind of lost with the injury."

Garcia was placed on the 60-day disabled list June 7 due to left shoulder impingement. He was 3-4 with a 4.48 ERA in 11 starts at the time.

Garcia was coming off a 13-7 season last year in which he threw a career-high 194 innings during the regular season, as well as helping the Cardinals win a World Series title. When he reported to spring training, he noticed his arm felt different, but he just thought it was from all of the innings he threw last season. After all, he was only three years removed from Tommy John surgery.

He chalked the discomfort up to just having a dead arm. But it lingered on for about a month and a half into this season.

"The last couple of weeks before I said something, it just started to get real tight, and it was really hard for me to recover. The next day it would be real sore, and throwing my bullpen's it would be tight. I kept pitching like that for a couple of weeks, thinking it was just part of being tired from the year before."

Finally, Garcia informed the Cardinals of what he was experiencing and they opted to put him on the DL.

"I'm pretty excited that I did say something because it was a problem and we got it fixed," Garcia said. "I feel a lot better now. Hopefully, I can go back out there and not have to deal with it again. That's the main goal."

Garcia said he is heading back to St. Louis this morning. He is expected to return to the Cardinals rotation for Sunday's game against Pittsburgh.

Tuesday's start was his fourth rehab appearance. He fared much better than his last outing at Double A Springfield in which he gave up five runs on six hits in six innings.

Against the Bees, Garcia allowed just four hits in five innings. Two of those were infield hits, while another was a two-run homer to right by first baseman Efren Navarro. Garcia also walked three batters as he tossed 93 pitches, 60 of which were strikes.

"As long as I'm getting better, that's what I want to see," he said. "I definitely take a lot of good things from this start. I've just got to get ready for whatever's next."

The Redbirds couldn't muster any offense in dropping their third straight game. Despite collecting eight hits, the Redbirds left 10 men on base and were 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position.

Lou Montanez and Eugenio Velez drove in the only runs for the Redbirds in the contest.In other news, Redbirds' pitcher Trevor Rosenthal was recalled to St. Louis on Tuesday after Brian Fuentes was put on the restricted list to handle a personal matter. Rosenthal made two starts for the Redbirds, gaining no decisions in both while posting a 6.30 ERA. To fill his spot, the Cardinals signed free agent infielder Brock Peterson, who had been playing for the Bridgeport Bluefish of the independent Atlantic League. Peterson started at first base for the Redbirds and was 0 for 4 Tuesday.